


Stretch Her Wings

by FluffyFlo



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Sad, reversed ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 17:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20568392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluffyFlo/pseuds/FluffyFlo
Summary: After being in the Hanged Man’s realm for so long, Venus begins to change.A tiny drabble I couldn’t get out of my head.





	Stretch Her Wings

“Did they itch when they grew in for you?” Practiced if but ever nervous fingers trailed over her shoulders, goosebumps following in their wake. They weren’t even goosebumps anymore— not now that the bumps had something more than hair to make stand on end. 

“Like hell.” His voice had caught that melancholy and bitter tone that it often did, and she felt guilty for even asking for his help. To think of all of the painful and lonely memories she was conjuring for him nearly brought tears to her eyes if not for the silky feeling of his warm fingertips on her feathers. 

Her feathers. What a bizarre thought; it made her gut twist. On him, they’d always been fine even though he behaved as though he were revolted to exist. That part had never made her nervous. The staying had— the imprisonment had— but never his appearance. Never his claws or his feathers, but now she understood what it felt like. 

She’d remained there so long that her magic wove together with his and with the realm’s, now so seamless that she didn’t realize anything had changed. Her nails grew. Her hair became tangled and stiff. Her joints ached. Her clothes didn’t hang right anymore. Perhaps to save her the pain, he’d ignored and hidden the feathers that shook out of her hair and that gathered behind her chair, but when they began to poke out through her sleeves and began to itch, the truth was unavoidable. Perhaps she wasn’t entirely a demon since she hadn’t made a deal like he had, but she certainly was no longer human. 

He carefully arranged and smoothed down the long, white feathers that decorated her shoulders, running his fingers through her hair— once a vibrant turquoise, now a dull gray. He cooed softly, tucking his sharp nose into the crown of her head and letting her feathers settle. Perhaps, however selfish the thought was, he wouldn’t break her. They’d both have talons, both have feathers. They were the same sort of creature. Even if it wasn’t right, even if it hurt, they were— as the saying went— birds of a feather.

No matter how hopeful she wanted to be for the future, for how happy and comfortable she wished to be, Venus knew the truth. Her feathers would continue to come in and they’d grow long. She knew these feathers; they were like Cyrus’s. The cage of the Hanged Raven was nearly large enough for Julian, but she… 

Her feathers would only provide a glimmer of hope because in the end, she’d be an albatross crammed into a cage the size of a raven.

She understood why Julian had been so afraid for her to see him the way he was. She understood why he was so sure he’d break her. Because she was terrified of the day that she was cloaked in her full glory, with wings large enough to engulf the whole tavern, because he’d know that she gave up her life for him. He’d know that he took that from her. And she didn’t want to believe that it was true.

**Author's Note:**

> Cyrus is Venus’s familiar, a Laysan Albatross. And yowch those wings are going to cramp.


End file.
